printer friendly pageENGLISH 154F: Film & Philosophy (FRENCH 154, ITALIAN 154, PHIL 193C)
What makes you the individual you are? Should you plan your life, or make it up as you go along? Is it always good to remember your past? Is it always good to know the truth? When does a machine become a person? What do we owe to other people? Is there always a right way to act? How can we live in a highly imperfect world? And what can film do that other media can't? We'll think about all of these great questions with the help of films that are philosophically stimulating, stylistically intriguing, and, for the most part, gripping to watch: Do The Right Thing (Lee), The Dark Knight (Nolan), Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Kaufman), Arrival (Villeneuve), My Dinner with Andr¿ (Malle), Blade Runner (Scott), La Jet¿e (Marker), Fight Club (Fincher), No Country for Old Men (Coen), The Seventh Seal (Bergman), and Memento (Nolan). Attendance at weekly screenings is mandatory; and fun. We will not be using the waitlist on Axess - if you would like to enroll and the course is full/closed please email us to get on the waitlist!
Last offered: Autumn 2022
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
ENGLISH 155: Stories at the Border (COMPLIT 156, GLOBAL 120)
How authors and filmmakers represent the process of border-making as a social experience? How do the genres in which they work shape our understandings of the issues themselves? We will explore several different genres of visual and textual representation from around the world that bear witness to border conflict - including writing by China Miéville, Carmen Boullosa, Joe Sacco, and Agha Shahid Ali - many of which also trouble the borders according to which genres are typically separated and defined.
Last offered: Spring 2023
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
ENGLISH 157D: Literature of the Anthropocene
We are living in a time of expedient environmental change caused by human influence. How has the American literary imagination metabolized the science and psychology of the moment? How do recently published works of poetry and fiction reflect our evolving relationship to animals, natural resources, weather and the very concept of 'nature' itself? How can stories and poems as cultural products help raise or sustain an ecological awareness, individually and collectively? Can a story introduce research or present a future that might otherwise seem inaccessible? Can a poem advance our understanding of the link between social justice and climate justice? These are some of the questions we'll ask as we engage texts by aesthetically, experientially, and culturally diverse writers. This small, discussion-based seminar aims to foster interdisciplinary exchange - students from across campus disciplines are encouraged to enroll.
Last offered: Autumn 2022
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
ENGLISH 158H: Science Meets Literature on the Monterey Peninsula (OCEANS 158H, OCEANS 258H)
(Graduate students register for 258H) This course will consider the remarkable nexus of scientific research and literature that developed on the Monterey Peninsula in the first half of the 20th century and how the two areas of creativity influenced each other. The period of focus begins with the 1932 association of John and Carol Steinbeck, Ed Ricketts, and Joseph Campbell, all of whom were highly influenced by the Carmel poet, Robinson Jeffers ¿ and ends with the novels Cannery Row (1945) and Sweet Thursday (1954). An indisputable high-tide mark, Sea of Cortez: A Leisurely of Travel and Research (1941) will be considered in detail. Weekend field trips will include intertidal exploration, a tour of the Jeffers Tor House in Carmel, and whale watching on Monterey Bay. Formally
BIOHOPK 158H & 258H.
Last offered: Spring 2019
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-CE
ENGLISH 159: James Baldwin & Twentieth Century Literature (AFRICAAM 159, AMSTUD 159, FEMGEN 159)
Black, gay and gifted, Baldwin was hailed as a "spokesman for the race", although he personally, and controversially, eschewed titles and classifications of all kinds. This course examines his classic novels and essays as well his exciting work across many lesser-examined domains - poetry, music, theatre, sermon, photo-text, children's literature, public media, comedy and artistic collaboration. Placing his work in context with other writers of the 20C (Faulkner, Wright, Morrison) and capitalizing on a resurgence of interest in the writer (NYC just dedicated a year of celebration of Baldwin and there are 2 new journals dedicated to study of Baldwin), the course seeks to capture the power and influence of Baldwin's work during the Civil Rights era as well as his relevance in the "post-race" transnational 21st century, when his prescient questioning of the boundaries of race, sex, love, leadership and country assume new urgency.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
ENGLISH 160: Poetry and Poetics
Introduction to the reading of poetry, with emphasis on how the sense of poems is shaped through diction, imagery, and technical elements of verse.English majors must take this class for 5 units.
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
ENGLISH 161: Narrative and Narrative Theory (COMPLIT 161E)
An introduction to stories and storytelling--that is, to narrative. What is narrative? When is narrative fictional and when non-fictional? How is it done, word by word, sentence by sentence? Must it be in prose? Can it be in pictures? How has storytelling changed over time? Focus on various forms, genres, structures, and characteristics of narrative. English majors must take this class for 5 units.
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, GER:DB-Hum
ENGLISH 165: Perspectives on American Identity (AMSTUD 160)
Required for American Studies majors. In this seminar we trace diverse and changing interpretations of American identity by exploring autobiographical, literary, and/or visual texts from the 18th through the 20th century in conversation with sociological, political, and historical accounts. *Fulfills Writing In the Major Requirement for American Studies Majors*
Terms: Spr
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-SI, GER:DB-Hum, WAY-EDP
Instructors:
Kessler, E. (PI)
ENGLISH 169D: Contemporary Asian American Stories (ASNAMST 169D)
This course will examine the aesthetics and politics of contemporary Asian American storytellers, with an emphasis on work produced within the past five years. We will investigate the pressures historically placed on Asian Americans to tell a certain kind of story e.g. the immigrant story in a realist mode and the ways writers have found to surprise, question, and innovate, moving beyond those boundaries to explore issues of race, sexuality, science, memory, citizenship, and belonging. Course materials will consist of novels, short stories, graphic narrative, and film, and may include work by Ocean Vuong, Mira Jacobs, Gish Jen, Charles Yu, and Adrian Tomine, as well as Lulu Wangs 2019 film The Farewell. This seminar will feature both analytical and creative components, and students will be encouraged to produce both kinds of responses to the material.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
Instructors:
Tanaka, S. (PI)
ENGLISH 172D: Introduction to Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity (CSRE 100, EDUC 166C, PSYCH 155, SOC 146, TAPS 165)
Race and ethnicity are often taken for granted as naturally occurring, self-evident phenomena that must be navigated or overcome to understand and eradicate the (re)production of societal hierarchies across historical, geopolitical, and institutional contexts. In contrast, this transdisciplinary course seeks to track and trouble the historical and contemporary creation, dissolution, experiences, and stakes of various ethnoracial borders. Key topics include: empire, colonialism, capital/ism, im/migration, diaspora, ideology, identity, subjectivity, scientism, intersectionality, solidarity, resistance, reproduction, and transformation. Cardinal Course certified by the Haas Center for Public Service . (Formerly
CSRE 196C)
Last offered: Spring 2023
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-SocSci, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
| Repeatable
2 times
(up to 10 units total)
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